Họ Sáo

椋鸟科liáng-niǎo kē

八哥科bā-gē kē

ムクドリ科muku-dori ka

General

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Modern Thai divides the Sturnidae: นกเอี้ยงnók îaŋ, typically equating to English 'myna', and นกกิ้งโครงnók kîŋ-kʰrooŋ equating to 'starling', although these divisions are not exactly congruent in the two languages. All of the Sturnidae are closely related, and scientific and popular classifications have changed several times in recent years. The Thai names follow a different scientific taxonomic system from that used in H&M4. In particular, the subfamilies Sturninae and Mainatinae no longer form a good correlation with the traditional names in English or Thai.

1. Mynas:เอี้ยงîaŋ is an old areal word for 'myna' (compare Vietnamese yểng). The term นกเอี้ยงnók îaŋ in the Thai classification includes not only most mynas, but also Aplonis glossy-starlings and two starling species, Gracupica contra and Sturnia pagodarum. As in Malay, Myophonus whistling thrush (Turdidae) is also named in Thai as a kind of large starling or myna, นกเอี้ยงถ้ำnók îaŋ tʰâm, literally 'cave myna (bird)'.

2. Starlings: The term for 'starling', นกกิ้งโครงnók kîŋ-kʰrooŋ, was used for the genus Sturnus at the time, which was larger than the current genus. It covers a range of genera in the current classification: Sturnus, Pastor, Gracupica (one species), Spodiopsar, Acridotheres (one species), and Saroglossa.

The name นกกิ้งโครงแกลบnók kîŋ-kʰrooŋ klàeep'lesser-starling' was assigned to the genus Sturnia (now covering Sturnia plus one species of Agropsar).

Although not used in species names here, คลิ้งโคลงkʰ(a)-líŋ-kʰlooŋ also means 'starling', and is probably an irregular dialect variant of the now usual name.

3. 'Talkingbird': Many very old Indic traditional stories feature differently named kinds of talking birds. It is often difficult to identify which species were originally meant, or indeed whether the birds were in reality capable of mimicking human speech. One such unidentifiable talkingbird name is usually written in Sanskrit as sārikā or śārikā, but additional variant spellings occur. Both were borrowed into Thai transliterated according to the different original spellings as สาริกา and ศาริกา, although both are pronounced identically as săa-rí-kaa. Another Thai variant, สาลิกาsăa-lí-kaa, is also the preferred form in Lao. (The same name has been independently borrowed as Khmer [saareʔkaa] and Mon [sariˀka].)

In Thai this talkingbird name has come to be identified equally with Acridotheres tristis Common Myna and with magpies (Corvidae). Thai ornithological authorities have attempted to disambiguate these usages with limited effect. Popularly all three Thai talkingbird variants still have both meanings.

Most modern ornithological sources now use the นกสาลิกาnók săa-lí-kaa variant for Pica magpies, and hence generally as an equivalent to English 'magpie', including Cissa green magpies and Urocissa blue magpies.

For ornithological disambiguation, เอี้ยงîaŋ'myna' has been added to the name of Acridotheres Common Myna. Two variants, นกเอี้ยงสาริกาnók îaŋ săa-rí-kaa and นกเอี้ยงสาลิกาnók îaŋ săa-lí-kaa, both 'talkingbird myna (bird)', have been used.

4. The Hill Myna (Southern Grackle), which is the most common cage bird among the mynas, is exceptionally known as นกขุนทองnók kʰŭn-tʰoaaŋ'Sir-Gold bird', a reference to the bright orange-yellow patches of naked skin and fleshy wattles on the side of its head and nape.

The characters 九官鳥 kyūkan-chō mean 'nine-rank bird'. The explanation is that the bird ranks after the eight Chinese bureaucratic ranks but ahead of ordinary commoners in intelligence.

八哥 bā-gē literally means 'eight big brother', which supposedly refers to white patches on the underside of the wings of Acridotheres cristatellus, the Chinese Jungle Myna, which resemble the character 八 bā 'eight' when the bird is in flight. The name has been generalised as the Chinese name for the mynas and has also been borrowed into Japanese as ハッカ hakka (八哥).

Sanskrit sārikā or śārikā 'talking bird' has been borrowed into Thai as สาริกา and ศาริกา, both săa-rí-kaa; and as สาลิกาsăa-lí-kaa. Although the original Indic species identification is lost, Thai relates these names equally to magpies (Corvidae) and to Common Mynas (Sturnidae).

Perling is from the Old Malay-Indonesian name Perling meaning 'starling'.